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ARUSHA, Tanzania, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Zanzibar, Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago, on Wednesday launched a cleanliness campaign in two tourist villages aimed at boosting the tourism industry in the Indian Ocean Islands.
The campaign, dubbed "Best of Zanzibar", seeks to change the situation in Isles and is being executed by health experts from the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) and ordinary islanders.
Nahya Khamis Nassor, Best of Zanzibar Project Officer, said that the campaign is to be carried out in Zanzibar's Northern Unguja Region in a bid to boost tourism after a research found that unhygienic conditions in the area, which in turn threatened both residents and visitors.
A study carried out last year in the villages of Kijini and Mbuyu Tende, which heavily depend on tourism, found that in every 100 houses only three to four had latrines, posing a serious threat to tourism-dependent businesses.
SUZA official said that last year's research showed that if things were left they way they were, the lifeline of the villages --tourism-- was in danger as well as the health of both residents and visitors.
Nassor said experts from SUZA had begun with cleanliness education for primary school pupils in the two villages, adding that the program will be carried out in five phases.
"Local leader and their deputies, teachers, women and youth groups, fishermen and health centers will also be reached," Nassor said.
The aim of the project is to kick out recurrent waterborne diseases especially cholera, diarrhea and other ailments that have turned the potential tourism hotspot into a somewhat risky place to visit and live in, Nassor said.
He emphasized that the project also seeks to create awareness on cleanliness with the view to making area residents take matters of health and hygiene into their hands. Enditem
